“Stop the Chop” exists to eliminate non-essential helicopters from the skies above New York City – because – according to the "Stop the Chop" website: “Tourist, charter and commuter helicopter flights dramatically reduce the quality of life for millions of people in the metropolitan area. They pollute our environment, pose significant safety risks, harm our children, and make us miserable” It was a hot, second day of summer afternoon in Riverside Park – at the “You’ve Got Mail” promenade and gar...
Jun 27, 2025•41 min•Season 12Ep. 261
Day 33 -- Veteran's For Peace "Fast for Gaza." This will be the final of the "Fast for Gaza" conversations with peacemaker Kathy Kelly. It was the beginning of a brutal heat wave in NYC; we found a shady spot on the UN side of 1st Avenue. On the opposite side a small group of fasting protestors held signs and umbrellas. Kathy and I talked about her 2004 book "Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison" -- focusing on the chapter "Change Agents" -- when she was visited in Pekin Prison ...
Jun 24, 2025•36 min•Season 12Ep. 255
Day 26 -- Veterans for Peace "Fast for Gaza . This BCR podcast begins and ends with music -- "Let My People Go" -- from “System Ali” – nine musicians -- Jewish and Arab -- singing in their native languages – Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, Yiddish, Amharic and English. My conversation with Kathy Kelly continues as Israel and Iran exchange missiles and killer drones. She arrived at the vigil at the US Mission to the UN a bit late because she had been attending a meeting of faith NGOs hearing a report fr...
Jun 17, 2025•22 min•Season 12Ep. 254
Day 23 -- VFP Fast for Gaza. I spoke with peacemaker Kathy Kelly and former member of the US AirForce Joy Metzler and asked them about their life choices that led them to join the "Fast for Gaza." Joy Metzler, 23, is a member of VFP and co-founder of Serivcemembers For Ceasefire – US military veterans calling for an end to the conflict in Gaza. Joy graduated from the USAF Academy in 2023 and was discharged as a conscientious objector citing “US aggression in the Middle East and the murderous eth...
Jun 14, 2025•34 min•Season 12Ep. 253
Monday – June 9, 2025 -- 19th day of the VFP Fast for Gaza -- talking with peacemaker Kathy Kelly and friends, as they consume no more than 250 calories a day for 40 days in solidarity with the citizens of Gaza who have been forced to exist on very little sustenance This program begins with a Democracy Now! report on the seizure of the Gaza-bound aid ship – Madleen – in international waters by Israeli forces. When I arrived at the US Mission – Kathy Kelly was asking Bill Tottenham -- U.S. Marine...
Jun 11, 2025•20 min•Season 12Ep. 252
This is Day 16 of the Veterans for Peace "40-Day Fast for Gaza." Since May 22, 2025, I’ve been talking with peacemaker Kathy Kelly who has been fasting to raise awareness about how the citizens of Gaza are starving. It is the day before Eid al-Adha – the Muslim Festival of Sacrifice remembering Ibrahim or Abraham’s readiness to kill his son for his God. I sat down with Kathy Kelly and Brian Terrell of Malloy Iowa -- a Catholic Worker and worker for peace – he was in town to receive the 2025 Pax ...
Jun 08, 2025•34 min•Season 12Ep. 251
Monday - Day 12 of the 40 day fast -- Veterans for Peace's "Fasting for Gaza. I met up with peacemaker Kathy Kelly as she was starting a Zoom call with Global Solidarity for Peace in Palestine. Afterward, I asked her about Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, who spoke at the meeting regarding his arguments for a one state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, her fears for one forgotten student picked up by Trump's ICE force -- Columbia student Leqaa Kordia -- and the dangers of breaking the Israeli blo...
Jun 03, 2025•24 min•Season 12Ep. 250
Friday - Day 9 of the 40 day fast -- Veterans for Peace's "Fasting for Gaza." When I arrived at the US Mission across from the United Nations in Manhattan, a dozen peace activists where facing 1st Avenue with their signs calling Israel and the United States to feed the Palestinians of Gaza. I first spoke with Mike Ferner -- Mike Ferner – a Vietnam War Veteran and former city council member of Toledo, Ohio, author, and peace activist – who had protested US war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanist...
May 30, 2025•18 min•Season 12Ep. 249
I am talking with peace activist and Nobel Peace nominee Kathy Kelly as she fasts for 40 days in solidarity with the Palestinian people starving in Gaza. This is the sixth day of her fast. I first spoke with Catholic Worker Martha Hennessy -- granddaughter of Dorothy Day -- about the portrait of the U.S. President glowering behind the streetside glass wall of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. I then found Ms. Kelly who was accompanied by about 15 other supporters of the Veterans for Peace ...
May 28, 2025•21 min•Season 12Ep. 248
A NEW BCR SERIES: Starting on May 22, 2025, several peace activist will fast for 40 days -- vigiling in front of the United States Mission to the UN. They demand an end to US support of Israel's military and urge the American government to pressure Israel to open the Gazan borders to humanitarian aid. For this BCR series I will meet with one of these fasters -- Kathy Kelly -- periodically, and ask her to share her thoughts and concerns. Share your thoughts about this action at barcrawlradio@gmai...
May 26, 2025•11 min•Season 12Ep. 247
We were out in Riverside Parks at the "You've Got Mail" Promenade bench of our choice talking with NYCSleepDoctor.com Dr, Janet Kennedy. The tourist helicopters were ubiquitous and our UWS neighbors had many questions for Dr. Kennedy about their sleep issues. If there is one thing I learned from this conversation is that a good night's sleep is basic to good health and an interesting life. Listening to Janet's expert advice will probably push you to a more wakeful existence. Alan Winson barcrawl...
May 25, 2025•55 min•Season 12Ep. 260
A podcast featuring people working for their neighbors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 25, 2025•10 min•Season 12Ep. 259
Joseph Darcourt is an American-born Peruvian-Taiwanese cellist who has been honored by three US presidents. When he was 12 -- he debut at Carnegie Hall. And at 16 he began researching the power of music at Columbia University. This program features Mr. Darcourt performing Bach's Cello Suite #1 in G Major at the West Side Community Garden in May 2025. A longer interview with excerpts from this concertI will add be added to this program in a few weeks. SCG on May 25, 2025 – We are Bar Crawl Radio ...
May 25, 2025•16 min•Season 12Ep. 258
Bar Crawl Radio is back at the West Side Community Garden talking with UWSers helping those in need on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.Wendy Straus and BCR producer Alina Larson talked about their work for Open Hearts Initiatives and Pastor K [Karpan] told us about his Church on W. 86th Street. These two UWS organizations are doing in many programs to help our recent migrants from around the world looking for a safe place to be free and complete their dreams and homeless. Hosted on Acast. See a...
May 23, 2025•43 min•Season 12Ep. 257
Ross Barkan’s newest novel “Glass Century” is a panoramic story of New York City from our crime-ridden 70s. through the tragedy of 9/11 to the COVID lockdowns. The story focuses on Mona Glass a photojournalist in love with tennis and a married man. For this BCR podcast, we are not so interested in Mona Glass as the character in a novel but as a lens into the experiences of an American journalist and novelist and the author of “Glass Century” – Ross Barkan. For Bar Crawl Radio podcast. we talk to...
May 21, 2025•1 hr•Season 12Ep. 246
A conversation with two veterans of American wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan – about their work with “We Are Not Your Soldiers” – informing high school and college students about the morally unpleasant truths of the US military. In 2008 the anti-war organization – “World Can’t Wait” -- invited American war veterans to share their military experiences with high school and college students – challenging the American culture’s overly positive patriotic narratives. Joe Urgo grew up in a white conser...
Feb 23, 2025•59 min•Season 11Ep. 245
For this BCR series I have been asking American peacemakers: “What are we talking about when we talk about ‘The American’?” This program looks to a Jesuit priest and peacemaker Thomas Merton. At the end of “The Root of War” published in The Catholic Worker in 1962 – Thomas Merton wrote – “The first job of all is to understand the psychological forces at work in ourselves and in society.” That in a nutshell is the purpose of my conversations with American peacemakers. Merton’s autobiography -- “T...
Jan 17, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 11Ep. 244
This is the third in the BCR series "Talking About The American" -- We are asking American peacemakers to try to explain how they see the qualities of our countrymen. This episode – How’d we do with AIDS? I was in Syracuse for a Veterans for Peace pro-Palestine rally at the James M. Hanley Federal Building . Before the rally I had breakfast with Christian Caurla – an Italian journalist – at the home of Michael Desalvo -- where he and his partner Nick Orth – have provided home-based care for peop...
Jan 10, 2025•28 min•Season 11Ep. 243
Rob Fersh talks about collaborative problem solving and his new book, co-authored with Mariah Levison “From Conflict to Convergence: Coming Together to Solve Tough Problems” – As our country divides up its wealth between a few gazillionairs and the rest of us – coming together seems a worthwhile goal. Rob Fersh is the Founder and Senior Advisor of the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution . Before that he worked on international conflict resolution and directed U.S. national policy consensus ...
Jan 03, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 11Ep. 242
This BCR Podcast series will be asking American peace activists a question borrowed from Raymond Carver: “What are we talking about when we talk about ‘The American’ ?” This episode looks at an anti-Vietnam War, anti-nuclear peace activist, longtime incarcerated American criminal – and Catholic priest – Philip Berrigan. Brad Wolf joined me via Zoom to help. Recently, Brad edited a collection of Berrigan’s writings, entitled -- “A Ministry of Risk”. Brad is a former lawyer, persecutor, professor ...
Dec 27, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 11Ep. 241
TALKING ABOUT "THE AMERICANS": BURYING GAZA BABIES On December 9, 2024 -- I talked with several of the nearly 50 protestors holding a mock funeral on a plot of grass at the front of the Syracuse Federal Building . It was a rainy and cold morning as several peacemakers neatly ripped away the grass and created a shallow oblong hole into which a half dozen babies in the form of bloodied pillows were placed. An oversized tombstone stood at one end of the "grave." Homeland Security officers arrested ...
Dec 23, 2024•25 min•Season 11Ep. 240
For this BCR recording we were at the Hollow Nickel Bar in Brooklyn NY. Why a hollow nickel -- check out their website. We had a wild, funny and crucially important conversation about the work of the Church of Stop Shopping with Rev. Billy and Vera Anderson, They had just finished their Saturday morning "Earth Riot" radio show at WBAI. Rev. Billy is an enactment of activist actor and writer Billy Talen; he leads the Church of Stop Shopping -- a New York City performance community preaching the i...
Nov 14, 2024•56 min•Season 11Ep. 239
Once again -- recording on the porch of Gebhard's Beer Culture Bar located in Manhattan's Upper West Side -- BCR hosts Rebecca McKean and Alan Winson talk with the four composers and performers and leaders of Composer's Concordance about "contemporary [classic] music." This music movement has been described by the New York Times as “unpredictable … irreverent …and ingenious.” For over four decades Composer's Concordance has presented concerts in all sorts of New York City area venues of inventiv...
Nov 08, 2024•57 min•Season 11Ep. 238
July, 2024. BCR visited the Hot Air Brewing in Creston, Iowa this summer. It is a bastion of liberality and acceptance. We were in Iowa to visit our friends Brian Terrell and Betsy Kennan of the "Strangers and Guests Catholic Worker Farm," in Malloy, IA -- about 30 miles south of Creston; Betsy and Brian introduced us to Iowan's Katie Davidson and Ryan Fuller. When we talked with her, Katie owned the Hot Air Brewery and Ryan is a farmer with his husband and performs drag as "Cherry Peaks." We wa...
Sep 29, 2024•52 min•Season 11Ep. 237
The 26th Kateri Peace Conference held in Fonda, NY in mid-September, 2024 was entitled “What’s Love Got to do with it?” The outcome of peace activism is the end of always-war. If, indeed, we are all connected on this minuscule green spot in a vast universe – if we are sisters and brothers who care for each other – why do we choose to kill each other in horrific and massive ways? Bar Crawl Radio hosts -- Rebecca McKean and Alan Winson -- moderated the Friday evening panel with Ann Wright, Brian T...
Sep 19, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 11Ep. 236
Mid-September. BCR moderated the 26th Kateri Peace Conference panel with anti-war and anti-nuclear deterrence activists. We took that opportunity to talk with Melissa Bramble the Director of Operations of the St. Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda NY. Rebecca McKean asked Melissa about the history of St. Kateri and the Shrine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Sep 19, 2024•23 min•Season 11Ep. 236
Back in early Spring 2024 -- we net Bronx Public Defender Eli Northrup as he was beginning his run for NY State Assembly representative for the UWS. We were recording outside the Goddard Riverside Community Center at West 88th St and Columbus Avenue, talking to neighbors celebrating “Love Your Street Tree Day” – and Eli came up to our open mic. Eli placed second in the election for State Assembly. We invited Eli to talk about his experience of running for state office and his work as the “Policy...
Sep 07, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 10Ep. 235
BCR podcast traveled to Mexico and Scotland in August and asked what citizens of the world were feeling about the U.S. Presidential election. Nearly everyone I met was aware of the election and had significant and personal feelings about "Americans" and their limited choice for leadership. I talked with people from Puerta Vallarta, San Miguel de Allende, Edinburgh, and Aberfeldy -- tourists, a waiter, a van driver, teens from Belfast, couple of cooks, a photographer and painter, a teacher, an ai...
Sep 06, 2024•56 min•Season 10Ep. 234
Mid July, this year -- 2024 – Rebecca McKean and I flew into Chicago and then drove to Maloy Iowa – a few miles north of the Missouri border. We passed Joliet – Dekalk – Moline – Iowa City – Cedar Rapids - Ottunwa - Mt Ayr – then – Maloy, Iowa. At one time – not so long ago – Maloy had a small population. Its buildings remain: A medium sized Catholic Church – small Post Office – General Store – Dance Hall – City Hall. Now it is mostly empty – a husk of a town surrounded by massive corn fields. B...
Jul 25, 2024•43 min•Season 10Ep. 233
For the past three years BCR podcast has recorded on Sundays in June from the West Side Community Garden, As usual, we talked with neighbors doing amazing work for their community and featured the music of local artists performing in the Garden during the month. For this BCR program we invited three leaders of the WSCG to talk about its history. By a miraculous convergence of urban decay and sheer will, this former trash heap abides as a garden oasis on the Upper West Sider – all thanks to dedic...
Jun 21, 2024•29 min•Season 10Ep. 232
